Dubai bankers club seeks turnaround after membership dwindles

The club’s difficulties mirror a wider global economic slowdown that is impacting global banks causing them to retreat to their home markets.

Bloomberg/Christopher Pike

Dubai financial district’s members-only business club is seeking money to turnaround the exclusive meeting spot once-favored by the city’s top dealmakers, reported Bloomberg.

Capital Club Dubai is working with the investment banking arm of Emirates NBD to raise about AED 30 million ($8.2 million) as part of plans that include bringing in a new management team and restructuring debt.

Capital Club Dubai stated that the funds will be utilised to pay off existing debts, improve and refurbish the club.

The club added that every effort shall be made to manage it successfully and profitably, increase revenue and reduce costs.

Once one of the city’s most exclusive places to do business, the venue isn’t being spared the economic slump that is weighing on the emirate. Membership—which costs about $5,500 a year to access meeting rooms, a gym, a fine dining restaurant and a sports bar in the heart of the financial district—has dropped to about 1,000 from a peak of roughly 1,500 members.

Barclays, HSBC as well as Standard Chartered Bank and Deutsche Bank have been cutting jobs, while the Abraaj Group, once one of the financial hub’s major tenants, also collapsed last year.

A new board of directors chaired by Hussain Sultan Al Junaidy took over management of Capital Club Dubai from Signature Clubs International.

Al Junaidy has committed AED 6 million to the capital raising, while the remaining AED 24 million will come from other investors. The club hopes to double membership numbers by the end of next year.

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CPI Financial was established in Dubai in 1999 to meet the needs of an ever-expanding financial community, offering a comprehensive portfolio of market-leading products and services tailor-made for the banking and financial services sectors.